The invention relates to the discovery and asexual propagation of a new and distinct variety of kiwifruit, Actinidia chinensis cv. ‘ZESY003’, as herein described and illustrated. The new kiwifruit variety ‘ZESY003’ was selected from a population of seedlings derived from crossing two kiwifruit selections Kuimi 79-1-1 (not patented) and 30-03-05c.94 (not patented) in the course of a planned kiwifruit variety breeding program. The cross was made in November 1995 at Te Puke, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. The new variety was selected 51-17-29b.97 and has been named ‘ZESY003’.
The new kiwifruit variety ‘ZESY003’ may be distinguished from presently available Actinidia cultivars by the following distinguishing characteristics:
The fruit of the new kiwifruit variety ‘ZESY003’ maintain their firmness in cold store and at room temperature for much longer than those of ‘Hort16A’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,066).
‘ZESY003’ produce larger fruit than those of ‘Hort16A’ and also produce more flowers.
The fruit shape at the stylar end of the new variety ‘ZESY003’ has a slight indentation surrounding a protrusion compared with that of ‘Hort16A’, which extends into a characteristic ‘beak’.
The flesh of the new kiwifruit variety ‘ZESY003’ fruit is yellow in color (similar to ‘Hort16A’) when ripe for consumption, compared with ‘Hayward’, which is green in color.
‘ZESY003’ is tetraploid compared with ‘Hort16A’ which is diploid.
‘ZESY003’ is distinguished from its maternal parent (Kuimi 79-1-1) by characteristics including fruit shape, Kuimi 79-1-1 fruit are maliform, concave at the stalk attachment and slightly protruding at the stylar end with no stylar cavity; while fruit of ‘ZESY003’ are ovoid, almost flat at the stalk attachment and flat with an open cavity at the stylar end.
‘ZESY003’ is distinguished from its paternal parent (30-03-05c.94) as it is a female fruit kiwifruit variety whereas 30-03-05c.94 is a male non-fruit baring kiwifruit.
Asexual propagation of the new kiwifruit variety ‘ZESY003’, at Te Puke, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, by grafting shows that the unique combination of characteristics of the variety come true to form and are established and transmitted through succeeding propagation. In order to obtain true-to-type clones of the initial plant, asexually propagated plants were obtained by grafting dormant buds from the original seedling onto rootstocks.